Outdoor Lives by Mike Raine – Details, episodes & analysis

This is a special, bonus summer edition of the podcast. I visited the Cymdeithas Eryri/Snowdonia Society weekend in Nant Gwynant to find out more about the Society and the event.

Cymdeithas Eryri's Make A Difference (MAD) weekend was funded by the UK Government, with funds administered by Gwynedd Council.

A full new series will start in November

Angela heads up the Ramblers in Wales. She leads a team campaign on behalf of footpaths and walkers. We chat about what the Ramblers are doing and how they are going about it. We touch on many topics, such as working with Welsh Government, volunteers and landowners.

Rich is a climber, walker, biker and A&E Consultant. He heads up the medical team for Ourea Events and is an active member of, and doctor with, the busiest mountain rescue team in the country.

Mountain Leader, Nature Friendly Farmer, former Bannau Brycheiniog Ranger, former Yr Wyddfa Warden, Former Head Warden and Senior Manager at Eryri National Park; Helen Pye chats about her new role at the National Trust the land the Trust own, how it’s managed and a few other tangents besides.

Former headteachers Fiona and Rob Nicholson have been running Gwesty Plas Coch in Llanberis since 2019. Their vision was to develop Plas Coch as part of the outdoor community whilst themselves working hard to become part of their new home village community. Their knowledge of the Eryri mountains and lakes have helped them to establish themselves and drove their recent endeavours to become the first ‘Gold Level’ business under the Plastic Free Yr Wyddfa scheme.

Phill has been an active mountaineer for over 40 years. During that time he has completed the Winter Mountain Climbing Instructor (WMCI) qualification and the British Mountain Guides scheme (IFMGA) which qualifies him for all aspects of mountaineering activities world wide. Phill is a qualified teacher and has worked for private and local Education based centres throughout the country on an instructional basis and as a technical expert. Based in Snowdonia, he is now a very popular provider of National Governing Body Awards for Summer Mountain Leader (ML) Rock Climbing Instructor (RCI) and Hill & Moorland (HML)

Pete Edwards owns and runs his own business, Prowess Climbing Coaching; helping climbers of all abilities and ages to not only improve their climbing grade but also their enjoyment of their climbing by helping improve technical, tactical and psychological skills. Prowess also provides coach education courses, including the BMC FUNdamentals of Climbing workshops and other CPD workshops.

Pete speaks intelligently about the relatively new world of climbing coaching.

In a wide ranging conversation with Tom about his role and how he comes to be doing it we touch on all sorts of things, including the fact that it didn't freeze on Clogwyn Ddu (850m) at all last winter!

Mal Creasey has influenced thousands of mountain leaders, instructors and guides in a climbing career spanning over 60 years. He worked as the Technical Officer for Mountain Training England, as a Guide in the Alps and as a member of staff at Plas y Brenin. He was involved in the first two MIA (now MCI) courses, he’s an author, writer and is still active walking and climbing every week.

Dewi Davies is the Project Manager for National Trust Cymru focussing on the Uwch Conwy catchment in the east of Eryri National Park.

Dewi leads a team of people on the restoration of nature, predominantly peatland at the head of the river basin, but also working on rivers and their catchments to improve habitats by restoring natural processes and increasing tree cover. The project also supports farming tradition and heritage. They are working on access improvements, so that people living and visiting the area can benefit from nature, too. All this helps with mitigating the effects of climate change -fire, drought, floods and species and habitat declines.